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The course of Jacques Chirac often crossed the roads of Corrèze. It is in this rural department of central France that the former French president began his political career. And in the town of Sarran is the Jacques Chirac museum, where many visitors paid him tribute on Thursday 26 September.
This Friday morning, the local newspaper La Montagne headlines " Farewell to the Great ". The big one is Jacques Chirac, the adopted son of the department of Corrèze. He was elected city councilor of Sainte-Féréole in 1965. And when he began the legislative elections in 1967, he chose the land of his childhood: Corrèze, where his father taught.
Jacques Chirac then wins in this bastion of the left. This is the beginning of a great story between the Corréziens and Jacques Chirac, a real passion for the terroir, as evidenced by his long annual visits to the Salon de l'agriculture. With his wife Bernadette, he will buy on the spot the castle of Bity, in Sarran.
Lovers of Corrèze
He returns every weekend until his presidential victory in 1995. And even when he is elected to the Elysee, it makes a point of honor to present Tulle his wishes each year. Lover of Corrèze, he found the means, even while traveling, to talk about it. As in Noumea, where he will go so far as to say: " It is almost as beautiful as Corrèze. "
" He did a lot for Corrèze, " say the Corréziens between highways, financing and plant locations. Jacques Chirac has weighed all his weight to water his land of choice.
The land of presidents
When a young ambitious socialist arrived in Corrèze in 1981, to rub the head of the RPR in the legislative elections, in the wake of the victory of François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac mocked him while saying that the new president sent him his "Labrador". The young man does not disassemble and comes to meet Jacques Chirac during one of his meetings with local activists. Her name ? Francois Hollande.
This is the beginning of a long story between the two men. François Hollande will resume much later the position of deputy Jacques Chirac, then the department. And finally, he settles in turn at the Elysee, making the Corrèze definitely a land of presidents. Jacques Chirac will even affirm, in 2012, his intention to vote for François Hollande, face camera, in the presence of the interested party.
Right or left, the Corréziens now salute the man Chirac, faithful to his land of choice. But they remember very little of his record. More of his style. It is first of all the personality of Jacques Chirac that seduced them, well before his politics.
He adopted Corrèze and Corrèze adopted it well.
Tribute to Jean-Jacques Lauga, mayor of the village of Saint-Jal, to Jacques Chirac 27/09/2019 - by Julien Chavanne Play
His wife too, will have been very present in Corrèze. Bernadette Chirac has been a municipal councilor for Sarran for more than 36 years. It is in this small town that the museum of President Jacques Chirac is installed.
Inaugurated in 2000, the place houses the gifts received by the Head of State and his more than 80 visits during the two presidential terms. Three gold books were opened next to a large portrait proclaiming " Thank you Mr. Jacques Chirac ".
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Between the Citroën CX borrowed by Jacques Chirac the night of his victory in the presidential election of 1995 and watches, vases, pens offered during his state visits, Jean-Claude plunges, moved, in his memories of the former president thanks at the museum: " It's a president I liked. It makes me something, especially since I'm a little bit of his generation. We are about the same age. "
" He was very close to people "
Nicolas is only 23 years old. Young but Chiraquian at heart, he stops in front of his favorite place of the museum, "in front of jerseys that Didier Deschamps had offered to the president at the time during the victory of the 1998 World Cup. which remain to me, that reviews and which I still see just by seeing that. "
The Corréziens parade to pay tribute and leave a few words in the guest book filed in the entry: " He was earthly. He was very close to people. "Of the Corrèze, Jacques Chirac has indeed drawn his taste for the soil, its link with farmers, he who loved so much" feel the back train of cows, "as he said.
He defended the French agricultural model. It is a model with family farms. In our regions, it is appropriate to keep a minimum of populations in these very rural departments.
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